Richmond Voices is a Blog set up for the Catholic Blogging Community of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia. It has no connection with the diocese whatsoever. Richmond Voices seeks to give a voice to the People of God of this diocese. YOUR articles can be the basis for discussion and comments.

Tuesday: The new spin on Vatican IIWednesday:Pope aims to 'propose' practicesThursday:Our brains are wired for liturgyFriday:The hermeneutic of dysfunction, an NCR editorial

Please note: I have no link to the last three articles since they will be published on the days given. Those articles will be easy enough to find by going to one of the links and scrolling down to the bottom of the article.

8 comments:

Great posting! It is ironic that the liturgy has been a source of division and contention for many years. Was that really what the Second Vatican Council had in mind? Do the people on the opposite ends of the liturgical spectrum need to push their ideologies so strongly? I remember a couple of years ago when I asked why there was no tabernacle in one of the santuaries I visited and rather than getting a polite explanation, I got verbally assaulted and dismissed as a traditionalist even though I was raised as a guitar-strumming, hand-clapping, gather-gal. The ugly tone and rhetoric some take with their Catholic brothers and sisters really needs to stop.

i've been in the liturgy business a long time. i know what the ncr is talking about. the heart of the problem is that the vatican doesn't want to accept inculturation. this was one of the most important doctrines that came out of vatican 2. if we can't have inculturation in our liturgies, then the assembly is marginalized and we have a reclericalization of the church. read between the lines! they want to take us back to the dark ages.

The "National Catholic Reporter" has a reputation of being one of the shrillest corners of progressive Catholicism. Their contributors seem unable to get over the shock that they, after all, don't hold the keys to the interpretation of the Second Vatican Council.

The new mass is being re-sacralized so that it can be lifted out of the ditch of banality it was pushed into. There is nothing to lament here about, but a lot to rejoice for. It's a good thing when mediocrity is being replaced by the narrow gate.

The worst form of clericalization is that which tells the laity, "you aren't good enough unless you are doing the same things as a priest during Mass."

Anyone who has had the privilege of dealing with a truly traditional priest knows what a blessing it is. These changes in the liturgy are more them thank for the laity and thank God for that. We need good, strong, orthodox and faithful priests willing to lead, not milquetoast clerics who embrace strange forms of Mass wrapped up in humanist ideologies.

Watch for vocations to make a comeback. The sun is setting on the NCR and all of the aging hippies.

the vocations will come back when they let me and others like me to become priests. i can hand out eucharist but the all male hierarchy won't let me preside over the mass. i'm tired of distributing communion and purifying vessels. after 67 years on this earth, i'm ready to be treated like an adult catholic. we celebrate! we believe!